Within Our Walls: April 15, 2024

New changes to our billing system

It has been some time since my last Within Our Walls article. I have been pondering what this week’s article should be about, and with suggestions from staff, I am going to write about a concern staff, and community members have voiced.

It is no secret that our billing system is for lack of better words, less than stellar. Over the past 6-8 months, I have received concerns, complaints, and frustrations from patients, family members, and staff. The complaints encompass several different issues.

Some of the most common things I hear are, “I cannot understand my statement. Why am I receiving a refund check, and then a couple weeks later getting a bill? Why am I receiving telephone calls to pay a bill, when I haven’t received a paper statement in the mail? The helpline is not helpful, and the person on the other end of the line is difficult to understand.” I have also heard that some customers have chosen to receive care elsewhere due to our billing system.

I want to assure you that we at CHI St. Alexius Health Carrington have heard you, and have been diligently working with members of our billing team to improve our billing system, and to address the specific concerns that have been brought forward. Our business partners have formed a governance committee to look at the concerns brought forward regarding the billing system, and to work together on ways to improve the service we provide our customers.

One of the area’s the committee has addressed is the helpline. All operators answering telephone calls for the helpline go through an evaluation to grade how proficient they are in English. In order to be an operator, an evaluation rating of an A or B needs to be achieved. If the individual does not receive an A or B rating, they will not be allowed to answer customer’s calls.

This has been a good change, and we have seen improvements with patient experiences with the helpline. It is still a work in progress, and we will continue the work until we believe this process is running smoothly.

The second area that has been addressed is patient statements. Customers find it hard to understand their statements, and what exactly they are being billed for. It is also difficult to understand what insurance has paid, and what the patient’s responsibility is. Collaboration has been taking place with our business partners, and in early May, we will be rolling out new billing statements. These updated statements will clarify and address patient and hospital feedback, and will align with current payment processes.

I want to assure you that CHI St. Alexius Health Carrington will continue to push for improvements within our billing system until we feel the process is running efficiently and effectively.

I want to thank those customers who have stuck with us in spite of the billing issues we have, and I want to ask that those of you who have left due to our billing system give us another chance knowing that we are working diligently to make changes.